The emergency is vaccine mandates.
And a special session is being convened to pass GOP-sponsored bills which “call for banning vaccine passports and enacting $500,000 fines for companies that fire, demote, promote, compensate or refuse to hire an individual based on whether they are inoculated,” and “establish fines and jail time for public servants who attempt to implement federal vaccine mandates,” The Hill reported on Monday, October 18, 2021 (read story here).
Details aren’t available on whether that would apply to federal employees, such as inspectors enforcing OSHA rules implementing Biden’s vaccine mandate, or only state and local government workers who somehow got involved in implementing that mandate.
Imagine a shootout between a Wyoming sheriff trying to arrest federal inspectors and federal agents protecting him (click on image).
The federal fine for not complying with the vaccine mandate is $14,000, so by fining companies $500,000 for complying with it, those Wyoming legislators may be figuring that companies will go with the cheaper fine.
Or they may go to another state. But as Wikipedia notes here, “Wyoming is the home of only a handful of companies with a regional or national presence,” so they don’t have much business to lose. However, they appear determined to lose what there is.
Wikipedia also noted Wyoming is losing population, but didn’t offer a breakdown of how much is young people moving to other states for better opportunities, and how much is unvaccinated residents moving to graveyards.
All you can say for sure is that in state-level politics, they grow ’em stupid in Wyoming.